I planned on using GHE nutes as well, and at the same time wanted to add "other stuff to the soup" too. The reason I went for the H&G line is simple: the local growshop had a dead cheap offer on the H&G starter kit (roughly $110). It includes all the H&G products I mentioned in the Nutes section of my first post in this thread and except for the A&B component it lasts (in my case) for 3-5 cycles differing per additive. Drip clean and Magic green will last even longer.
The H&G Root Excel I'm definitely going to keep using. How much effectively it works I don't know, haven't done hydro without it, but my roots are healthy and the rez always smells fresh.
As for the others nutes, I'm not sure yet. By itself I don't see a reason to change a working thing so I'll probably stick with H&G. Although I could have some control with just A and B (since A contains most N) I rather use additives for more control. The main veg additive is MultiEnzym (named differently across the globe if I remember correctly), which is N+K. During peak and later flowering the main additive is Bud XL, which is N+P. And there's the PK13/14 of course (Top Booster is that, but includes Iron). H&G already contains Cal and Mg, and so does my tap water but I do use a bottle of Cal+Mg+N
a little.
As for a feeding schedule, I don't really have one because I work with 3 different strains from one nutes solution and they aren't going to follow any schedule I set in advance. I use a combination of the H&G chart and nutes calculator on their US site, and a chart pdf from their UK site, to estimate the ratio of ingredients in the soup. I don't keep notes or anything. I don't measure 'exactly' how much nutes I give. After a refresh (since my roots are in the tubes I can easily refresh the rez contents entirely) I simply add base nutes (roughly based on those formerly mentioned charts) up to roughly 800-900ppm (for example, in current phase. I know it's 800-900 ppm as that's what a long drink glass of A and of B results in my rez
), and then add additives to raise it to roughly 1050-1100 (more if PK13/14 time). Then 6-12 hours later I check whether it went up or down more than just a little (based on ppm and/or PH) and then add some more if needed, or top off with water to lower the ppm.
Having control is the main benefit of medium-less hydro, but it comes with a flip side, any deficiencies or overfeeding will have consequences much faster and 'need' to be controlled asap. More important than the nutes brand or schedule or exact doses is the info the plants give based on usage (if ppm lowers in nutes solution feed more), the color and tips of the leaves, stretching, stage of flower/bud formation etc, etc.
Two 'tools' any hydro grower must read / have access to:
- Nute deficiencies and toxication guides (most major forums have one as a sticky)
- Nute uptake chart with optimal PH levels for each element for hydro specifically (for example, many people add Mg while they should simply raise the PH to 6.0-ish for half a day or so)
